ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Boston Tea Party museum to re-open, bigger and better

ArtfixDaily / July 5th, 2010

One of the pivotal events leading to the American Revolution, the Boston Tea Party was commemorated with a once-popular tourist site in Boston Harbor. A recreation of a British tall ship, the brig Beaver, raided by colonial protestors on December 16, 1773, drew 400,000 visitors yearly, most ...

Race car styling informed Keno furniture line

Chicago Tribune / June 29th, 2010

Antiques specialists Leigh and Leslie Keno are well known for their special brand of enthusiastic interplay with early American furniture. The twin brothers' expertise has been broadcast to 10 million viewers per week in their appearances as appraisers on PBS' popular 'Antiques Roadshow.' A new ...

Celebrities, others shake up 50th anniversary of Hancock Shaker Village

ArtfixDaily / May 31st, 2010

Thirty guest curators, including celebrities who collect Shaker furniture and objects, were recruited to help shape the Hancock Shaker Village's exhibition "True and Honest Before the World" in the Berkshire Mountains. Filmmaker Ken Burns, architect/designer Michael Graves, television host Al ...

"Behind the Veneer: Thomas Day, Master Cabinetmaker" opens

ArtfixDaily / May 24th, 2010

Thomas Day, a free man of color who owned and operated one of North Carolina’s largest cabinetmaking shops prior to the Civil War, created a remarkable output of American furniture. Just opened at the North Carolina Museum of History, an exhibition of Day's work---from simple carvings to ornate ...

Keno Auctions debuts with record-smashing Chippendale chest

Antiques and the Arts / May 4th, 2010

A record price for New York furniture was set at Leigh Keno's inaugral auction last weekend. The James Beekman Chippendale carved mahogany chest of drawers from the shop of Thomas Brookman, with carving attributed to Henry Hardcastle, circa 1752, estimated at $200/600,000, sold for ...

Clars' browse-worthy May auction

Auction Central News / April 29th, 2010

Bolstered by four big estates, Clars' May 15-16 auction includes some important 17th and 18th century furnishings and a fine selection of art from Old Masters to contemporary artists. Asian art and jewelry round out the Oakland, Calif. firm's sale. Top-notch Western artists represented ...

Keno Bros. new furniture line deemed 'sexy'

Hartford Courant blog / April 19th, 2010

"The designs have so many curves, flared feet and serpentine styling details that they seem downright sexy," writes Hartford Courant blogger Nancy Schoeffer of the Theodore Alexander furniture line designed by twin brothers and antiques experts Leigh and Leslie Keno. The Keno Bros. ...

Dealers drop hints about Philadelphia show-stoppers

Main Line Media / April 14th, 2010

Philadelphia Antiques Show exhibitors are leaking a few of their booth highlights for the much-anticipated show which opens Friday night with a preview gala. New exhibitor Avery Galleries is bringing a large Emil Carlsen still-life painting and two Winslow Homer watercolors, valued between ...

Buzzworthy Americana at Philadelphia Antiques Show, Apr. 17-20

Phillyburbs.com / April 13th, 2010

Exhibitor Todd Prickett, of C.L. Prickett, will showcase a "phenomenal" tall case clock made by Matthew Egerton. Prickett says, "It's the finest form, and...original feet, original surface."

Los Angeles Antiques Show adds more Continental furniture dealers

Culture Kiosque / April 5th, 2010

New exhibitors to the Los Angeles Antiques Show this year are Bernard Steinitz of Paris and Carlton Hobbs of New York, both respected dealers of Continental furniture. From April 21 to 25, sixty-five exhibitors from across the U.S. and Europe will be featured in room-setting vignettes ...

Antiques restorer is bent on authenticity

Kentucky.com / April 5th, 2010

Mason Roberts, 38, is part artist and craftsman, part detective and historian. One of a handful of top-level antiques restorers in Kentucky, Roberts examines each damaged piece carefully so that, he says, "you won't be able to tell I did anything" after the restoration. For example, he uses ...

Chinese wallpapers in today's interiors

Interior Design / April 1st, 2010

An attractive backdrop for early American antiques, 18th-and-early-19th century Chinese wallpaper has been used in 20th-21st century interiors at historic hotels and in grand spaces such as Winterthur's Chinese Parlor. Contrary to today's usage, Chinese wallpapers were an expensive luxury item ...

Tiffany, Nakashima featured in Skinner's 20th-century design sale

Auction Central News / March 25th, 2010

Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts, Art Deco, Mid-century Modern and Studio Movement furniture and decorative arts, including Scandinavian modern, will be auctioned March 27 at Skinner's in Boston. Highlights include a Tiffany student lamp, bronze with green damascene shades, estimated at ...

Enthusiasm for Americana at TAAS

Maine Antique Digest / March 22nd, 2010

From William and Mary gate-leg tables to Art Deco silver, The American Antiques Show saw some swift sales last January, but nothing was selling like hotcakes, according to Maine Antique Digest's recap of the Americana Week event in New York. "It is a good time for savvy money to be in the ...

Keno Bros. to unveil new furniture line

Luxist / March 2nd, 2010

With their celebrity cache garnered from appearing on "Antiques Roadshow," American furntiure specialists Leigh and Leslie Keno are lending their names and expertise to a partnership with furniture maker Theodore Alexander. Their new line of antiques-inspired home furnishings will include 40 ...

Lingering thoughts of Tiffany, other tantalizing treasures at Winter Antiques Show

Canadian Press / February 16th, 2010

January's Winter Antiques Show is still generating buzz. Among the unveilings at the presitigious New York fair was one of the most significant Tiffany lamps to come on the market in decades. The exquisite example, with cascading pastel lilies and a lily pad bronze base, ...

Re-visiting Margi Hofer's 2007 book "A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls"

Tallmedge Express / February 10th, 2010

In 1906, the highest paid female in the U.S. was a woman born and raised in Tallmadge, Ohio, who was making it big in the big city. Clara (Wolcott) Driscoll moved to New York City and became Louis Comfort Tiffany's go-to designer. Driscoll is noted for her jewelry ...

Weekend Auction: Modern design stars at Sollo Rago

Auction Central News / October 20th, 2009

Wharton Esherick, Wendell Castle, Gio Ponti, Campo & Graffi, Richard Blow, George Nakashima, and Albert Paley are just some of the modern masters whose furniture is offered in Sollo Rago's much anticipated Modern Auction Weekend, October 24-25, in Lambertville, New Jersey. Studio furniture ...

Tea Table Primer

About.com / August 6th, 2009

Through the 18th century right up until the 1770s, a good number of small rectangular tables and round tilt-top tables were crafted in Colonial America, especially in Queen Anne and Chippendale styles. We usually refer to them as “tea tables,” but did they really have much to do with tea?